Please visit the Park Updates page for additional park-specific information. Read More Read Less This 23, acre park offers many activities, such as camping, boating, fishing, swimming, hiking, picnicking, and wildlife viewing. Lake Pleasant is a water reservoir and is part of the Central Arizona Project waterway system — bringing water from the Lower Colorado River into Central and southern Arizona.
The acreage of the water surface can fluctuate from over 3, acres to almost 10, acres at its fullest. Over the past year, many businesses have had to rethink their business models to Home Lake Pleasant Regional Park.
Welcome to Lake Pleasant Regional Park. As work began on the Central Arizona Project in , it became clear that Lake Pleasant's storage capcity would need to be increased. The solution was to build a new, larger dam one-half mile downstream of the old dam.
The new dam received the very appropriate name of "New Waddell Dam. The new foot tall dam is made of earth and has tripled the size of Lake Pleasant. With a storage capacity of 1. The lake reached its new full capacity for the first time in So what happened to the original Waddell Dam? As a matter of fact, it's still there! The old dam now sits feet below the surface of the water.
A large section of the old dam was cut out using a diesel-powered, diamond-tipped saw so that water and boats could pass between the two when the level of the lake is low. Lake Pleasant Today Thanks to the explosive growth of Phoenix during the past several decades, Lake Pleasant has become a hotspot for recreational activities.
Boating, fishing, and camping are all popular activities in the area. Wilcox told Cardin that she had been "very apprehensive" about approving the contract. Cardin told Wilcox that the parks department had "became aware of [Scalzo's] involvement in early , and conflict of interest concerns were raised by us to county legal counsel.
Mike Pretasky, a member of Lake Pleasant Marina Partners, LLP only in matters pertaining to future permitting and development that would fall under the jurisdiction of the City of Peoria. County staff put the deal together, he said. That isn't how a former employee with the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that has jurisdiction over Lake Pleasant, remembers it.
He is paying the Maricopa Water District which owns the portion of land where he built Pleasant Harbor about 7 percent for the privilege of a waterfront business on Lake Pleasant. Maule-Ffinch offered to give the county roughly the same rate of return if he was allowed to build the second marina, but he was turned down repeatedly by county park officials.
Not only were his bids rebuffed starting in , but by the time the county rolled out proposals in and , the park officials made sure he couldn't bid at all -- by adding a clause prohibiting anyone with an existing business near the lake from participating.
That language was included in the RFP despite protests from Miles, who was overseeing parts of the project. In a e-mail, he wrote to a Maricopa County administrator that the version of the marina RFP that was approved by the Bureau was not the same one released to the public, citing that it contained an exclusionary clause that the Bureau of Reclamation hasn't approved.
Scalzo started soliciting proposals for a second marina in , after the county lost a legal battle to block the Maricopa Water District -- which owned land on the southeast end of the lake -- from opening its own marina.
The Water District's victory gave way to Pleasant Harbor Marina, a privately-owned marina that has been open to the public since September Business on the lake blossomed, and marina owner David Maule-Ffinch opened wet slips and dry slips for boat owners to park their watercraft, retail shops, The Village Store and Azul Boutique, the Waterfront Grille, a full-service restaurant, a bar and it's worth noting restrooms with granite counter tops. There, he had been responsible for finding a concessionaire to develop the International Park site on the Muamee River.
Scalzo found a developer for the waterfront project, but they pulled out and accepted a competing offer on the other side of the river. When Scalzo left Toledo in , the site remained undeveloped.
He arrived in Maricopa County, started working to build a marina for the county, and again, he is beaten to the punch. It set the stage for a contentious relationships between Maricopa Water District, Maule-Ffinch and Scalzo as evident in 15 years worth of failed attempts to open a second marina at Lake Pleasant Regional Park. New Times asked Scalzo why the RFP was issued again and again, even though there were experienced bidders like the owners of the profitable Pleasant Harbor Marina offering to pay a 7 percent franchise fee.
He reiterated that he hadn't been involved with the details, that he was busy with other roles in the county and that's why he hired good staff. It spanned 1, feet and was feet above the deepest part of the stream bed. In a roadway was added to the top of the dam. This new Waddell Dam was completed in - it is an earthen dam.
The new dam added tremendous capacity to Lake Pleasant, whose function is to be a storage facility for the CAP. The new dam allows water levels to tower feet over the top of the old dam by the end of March each year.
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